If your idea of HR is a few templates you found on Google and a payroll system that runs itself, you're not alone. Most small business starts that way. HR is the forgotten stepsister of all the big functions. Small business leaders think about marketing, they think about sales, they think about product, and they forget that scaling a business takes people. Then something happens and they remember, and they duct tape some solution together. But DIY HR works right up until it doesn't. At some point, it stops saving you money and starts costing you growth. I'm Sabrina Baker, and this is The HR Connection, the show proving that small business growth happens through people. Today, we're talking about what happens when the figure-it-out-as-you-go version of human resources starts holding your small business back, and the five unmistakable signs it's time to evolve. Welcome to The HR Connection, the podcast proving that small business growth happens through people, and HR is how you make it happen. I'm your host, Sabrina Baker, CEO of Acacia HR Solutions. After more than a decade helping small employers build people strategies that actually drive results, I've seen one truth hold steady: growth doesn't start with your business plan; it starts with your people. Every week, we unpack how HR, when done right, becomes the engine behind every great small business. So whether you're the one-person HR department, a founder figuring it out, or someone who just got HR added to your job description, this show is for you. Every small business I've ever worked with starts in survival mode, including mine. You hire your first employee, then another. Payroll goes into QuickBooks, PTO lives in Excel, your handbook probably copied from the internet, and it works for a while. You're focused on sales, product, service delivery, not building HR infrastructure. But here's what sneaks up on you: the moment people become your biggest expense, they also become your biggest opportunity. I have no scientific proof of this, but in my 14 years of helping small business clients, I can tell you that 60 employees seems to be the number where the absolute shit hits the fan from an employee relations issue perspective. And if you don't have HR, then you are going to have some sleepless nights at that point. DIY HR is great when you're just trying to make payroll, but the second you start managing humans instead of headcount, that approach starts to break down. The very thing that got you here, the scrappiness, can't get you to sustainable growth. Let's walk through the five signs that your will-figure-it-out HR days are numbered. And I want you to listen with curiosity, not guilt. This is the place all clients come to us. If they didn't have a need for more HR structure, I wouldn't have a business. So no shame in what I'm about to list. But if you find yourself nodding along to two or more of these, it might be time for a shift. Sign number one: HR fires are constant. Every week is something unexpected. A late offer letter, a new hire shows up to no workstation. Someone asks for leave, and everyone scrambles to Google the rules. You're reacting, not leading, and growth cannot live or scale in chaos. When you're always putting out fires, there's no time left to build anything new. Managers don't know the rules is sign number two, and neither do you. You get questions like, "Is this role exempt?" or "Can I make someone a contractor?" or "Do we have to pay overtime for this?" And your answer is usually, "Let me check." You're not alone. Small businesses trip here all the time, but the risk grows as the team grows. When no one knows the guardrails, you burn time, lose trust, and risk compliance issues that can derail everything you've built. It only takes one wage-an-hour issue, one misclassified employee, one harassment case to burn up your entire business. Sign number three: Employees don't know what's expected. Onboarding looks different for every hire. Job descriptions are vague. Performance conversations only happen when there's a problem. People want to do good work, but they can't hit a target they can't see. Clarity is the simplest form of growth. If your team doesn't know what good looks like, your business can't get better at it. Sign four: You're losing really good people for avoidable reasons. Maybe turnover feels random. Someone leaves because things feel disorganized or because they don't see a path forward. Those phrases are really code for we lack structure here. When employees start craving what you can't give—consistency, development, feedback, accountability, communication—they go find that somewhere else. Turnover is your lagging HR indicator.  By the time you see it, the damage has already been done. And then sign number five: HR work is getting in the way of your real job. You, the founder, the office manager, the ops lead, are now knee-deep in PTO tracking, policy writing, and performance issues. And every hour you spend managing HR tasks is an hour you're not leading growth. You didn't start this business to manage paperwork and employee disputes. But without someone truly owning HR, that's exactly what happens. The urgent crowds out the important. If you recognized yourself in two or more of those, congratulations. That's not failure; it's growth. You've reached the point where your people operations need to grow up with your business. Let's talk about why this matters and what's at stake here beyond just the stress. Every small business goes through four stages of HR maturity. Stage one: compliance, doing what's legally required. Stage two: consistency, building repeatable processes. Stage three: culture, aligning how you treat people with how you want to grow. And stage four: strategy, using HR to drive performance and profit. Now, clients come to us at all different stages of the spectrum, but most come at stage one. They find themselves drowning in HR, or a peer advisor told them they really needed HR help, and so they come in. And they realize that true business growth doesn't happen in phase one. It happens in phases three and four, where HR becomes the system that grows people and business together. So when you stay stuck in phase one, you're going to have a hard time growing. Every time you lose a good employee, delay a hire, or make a reactive HR decision, you slow your company's trajectory. Because business growth isn't about how fast you sell; it's about how well you keep and develop the people who sell, serve, and support your customers. Growth happens through people. And if no one's tending to that, you're leaving money and momentum on the table. So what should you do if you've outgrown DIY HR? Here are your options, some starting points for you. Step one is you're going to audit your systems. List everything people-related: payroll, onboarding, performance reviews, benefits. Ask yourself, "What's working? What do we have duct taped together?"   And then step two is going to be to define roles and responsibilities. Who actually owns HR tasks today? What's falling through the cracks because no one really does that? Step three, you need to decide your model, and you have a couple of choices here. You can keep it DIY, but add structure. If you have an HR person or someone who can dedicate the right amount of time to HR, then now is the time for them to start looking at what is working and what isn't and start putting structure around HR programs. You could also outsource to a PEO if benefits leverage is key and you're under 20 employees. Over 20, the PEO is no longer a cost-savings entity, and honestly, PEOs keep companies in stage one of HR maturity. The episode before this one talks all about PEOs, so check that out for more information. I mentioned them because I don't want to not give you all of your HR options, but please know that they are not my preference, and they weren't my preference even before I started a fractional support business. And then, of course, if you're ready for a partner who grows with you, you could look at fractional HR support, whether that's us or somebody else. It gives you experts who can step into your business with no ramp time, already fully trained with the know-how to take your business through the stages of HR maturity. You can set up a no-cost consultation in the link in the show notes. Step four then is to prioritize impact areas. You don't need to fix everything at once. Focus first on what will reduce chaos and boost confidence. That's usually going to be onboarding, performance, or compliance. And then finally, step five is reframe how you see HR. HR isn't a cost center. It's the system that turns good employees into great contributors and keeps them long enough to drive real growth. You don't have to become corporate to personalize HR. You just have to treat your people with the same intentionality you give your customers. If you are wondering whether you've outgrown DIY HR, I created something to help: the DIY HR audit checklist. It's going to show you exactly where you're solid, where you're exposed, and what to fix first. You can download it free at the link in the show notes. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The HR Connection. Remember that growth, real sustainable growth in a small business, happens through its people. We'll see you next time.